Our Week in the Forest...

With some slightly older children attending during holiday camps, this often brings new, exciting ideas to the group. We love to hear about what they like doing in school, who their teachers are or what favourite songs they sing – we never get bored of learning new songs in the forest! This is also beneficial for some of our older regulars; to hear about what school will be like when they join and to hopefully make the transition easier.

Throughout the week, role play has been a clear stand out feature and the children’s imaginative and inclusive style of play is always exciting to see. The week began with a hairdressing salon, where children sat patiently in the ‘waiting room’ listening to stories, before being called to their chair. Here they chose the colour of ribbon they would like, the length they wanted and how many different strands. Who knew Marlon could suit a blue ribbon so well?!

The following day brought more innovative ideas and now it was time to build a boat. As educators, we merely facilitate the learning and it was a joy to watch how the children firstly decided what they needed to make their boat – “LOGS”, “STICKS”, “ROPE” children excited shouted, but that was the easy part. Constructing the boat was much more challenging. Finding appropriate logs required good scavenging skills and even better mathematical skills to decide on size, then the children had to place them in a satisfactory layout, which proved to be much more easily said than done. Communication was key but by the end the children had created a boat they were very proud of. Now they could sail wherever their imagination took them.

Finally this week, our children ventured into the realms of Hogwarts, as one child told us about her favourite book - Harry Potter. Not all the children knew who Harry Potter was, but everyone liked the idea of becoming witches, wizards or magicians with their magic wands and broomsticks. Children found sticks before using their creativity to decorate them. One child found a stone and used it to remove the bark, another tied feathers to hers, while another decided ‘flower power’ was the best, attaching petals and flowers to hers.

It’s been a lovely week of observing and joining in with the children in their imaginative style of play. We all look forward to seeing what next week has in store for our final week of holiday camp.